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1:47pm May 23, 2014

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  1. nectaresque said: When I first read your name on your other blog I liked it because Mel sounded to me like it can be both female or male (but I’m not a native English speaker)…

Yes that’s one reason I’ve gone by it off and on for quite…

I think there might be a British/American English difference here. Every Mel I have ever met IRL has been a woman/girl (short for either Melissa or Melanie), and I don’t think I have ever heard of Mel being used as a boy’s name in the UK.

(Yes, I’m aware of male celebrities like Mel Brooks and Mel Gibson, but over here those are the kind of names that would be VERY much coded as American, and the longer male names you listed all sound like surnames rather than first names to me. Although I am aware that it seems very common for Americans to give their children (particularly boys?) first names that sound like surnames to British ears. We virtually never do that, except occasionally as a middle name.)

In the USA, it can go either way.  I think a lot of names start out mostly male and then go towards mostly female.  One of my new middle names (Evelyn) used to be gender-neutral and now is considered mostly female.

Also there’s generational differences.  My friend was worried about Mel because she said nurses from older generations would assume maleness, even if nurses from younger generations wouldn’t, for instance.